Ever since I started getting mostly "very high" games my team always seems to include at least 3 carries (and theirs too, I'm not complaining about my team being bad or anything).

This is even worse than normal games when I first started, how does this qualify as "very high"?

Common misconception, the three tiers of rating are not related to match making rating. Rather, they're there to help distinguish "good" games with higher than average G/XPM and whatever else Valve chose - with the intent to help players find good replays. (Source)

This is exactly why I call its lucky because I believe winner is more skilled be it by outpicking or other factor and the odds favored radiant...I don't know maybe you are right but we still lack mathematical proof.

Anyway, we need to wait and see more games.

What? Longview seems to be the only one in here who can not only pull accurate statistics in his favor but to also analyze them. He is asking very good questions, so why do you try to dismiss him saying things like "theres no proof" or "statistics don't mean shit?" This is like watching myself argue Invocationmasterer or whatever his name was because Longview does a better job at criticizing his own arguments than you do.

@Longview my take would be on two things. Like you said, first pick is often on Radiant and first pick often means, well, Magnus. I don't know why people complain about Centaur when I think Magnus could be a lot better subject for complaints. Ever since I saw they added Skewer and upped the range I wondered when people will start playing him more. With the old Magnus I kept thinking of him as some shittier version of Earthshaker who absolutely needs Blink Dagger to be of any use, now it's almost the other way around, though ES is far from useless.

The other reason would be a bit more speculative, I think the 6-minute Aegis as of now could be making teams rush into pickings fights they shouldn't take in order to use the Aegis, and since Dire has some advantage to Roshan it would affect them more negatively. Additionally, Magnus is a pretty good hero for contesting Roshan.

And I almost forgot, but the Radiant pulling mid has been a pretty fashionable thing to do as of late, and since a lot of teams have had trouble adjusting to it, that too could be affecting the winrates. I kind of expect that mid pull might be getting changed, even if the winrates even out with a bigger sample size. And I would be amazed if Reverse Polarity duration or cooldown remain unchanged for long.

---------- Post added 2012-11-28 at 12:19 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Longview

Common misconception, the three tiers of rating are not related to match making rating. Rather, they're there to help distinguish "good" games with higher than average G/XPM and whatever else Valve chose - with the intent to help players find good replays. (Source)

I'm kind of inclined to interpret that another way - I knew the rating scale was continuous, but I figured the replay brackets are just thresholds in the average MMR in the game. Which would to me make more sense, because even when somebody abandons in a start of a game, it's still flagged as "Very High" (and when I hit 800 GPM in every game on my alt when playing with 4 friends, the games are still flagged as "Normal.")

Players do a lot more dicking around in the higher levels, I used to random every single game for a long time and only sometimes repick even if the lineup was screwed. I still random a lot, but I was hit by a strong inclination to play certain heroes and I now have an alt account for doing the stupidest things imaginable anyway.

@Longview my take would be on two things. Like you said, first pick is often on Radiant and first pick often means, well, Magnus. I don't know why people complain about Centaur when I think Magnus could be a lot better subject for complaints. Ever since I saw they added Skewer and upped the range I wondered when people will start playing him more. With the old Magnus I kept thinking of him as some shittier version of Earthshaker who absolutely needs Blink Dagger to be of any use, now it's almost the other way around, though ES is far from useless.

After seeing competitive Magnus play, my team banned him during the first round every game. In phase three of the joinDOTA open yesterday(? - the days tend to blur when you work seven days/week), we opted for banning Dark Seer instead. Fast forward twenty minutes, and we could not take a team fight. We splitpushed them for fifteen-twenty minutes before grouping up as five to get their exposed barracks. Magnus blinked in with refresher, I have never seen a more one-sided fight.

Originally Posted by Hermanni

I'm kind of inclined to interpret that another way - I knew the rating scale was continuous, but I figured the replay brackets are just thresholds in the average MMR in the game. Which would to me make more sense, because even when somebody abandons in a start of a game, it's still flagged as "Very High" (and when I hit 800 GPM in every game on my alt when playing with 4 friends, the games are still flagged as "Normal.")

Certainly a possibility, I'm just really skeptic as to what the fuck I would do in the top two percent (or whatever number it'd be).

Originally Posted by Hermanni

I kind of expect that mid pull might be getting changed, even if the winrates even out with a bigger sample size.

That's what S2 did, right? (make mid unpullable)

Edit: They're currently discussing things that need to be changed in the next patch on Much Ado About Dota:

Magnataur too strong

fix mid-pulls

interesting.

Bulba, PaintItGold, Blitz and Aui2000 all agreed on the current heavy focus on pulling and stacking every possible neutral camp is boring from both a viewer and a player perspective. Bulba calls for Morphling buffs, even more interesting. I prefer this show to what TobiWan is doing by miles. Weppas just said you could blink during Skewer, and it would latch the people on and bring them with you. That'll probably get fixed really fast.

Love how you bring me into random conversations that has nothing to do with me.

Getting all your arguments shut down must have burned pretty hard eh? <3

For the love of god, have some pride sir!

If you think you burned my arguments you really must be exactly what I thought you were. Besides, the comparison was good.

I only stopped responding to you because there's nothing for me in arguing with you. I don't feel like wasting time arguing someone who makes himself look like an idiot in every other post and argues like a 12-year old in the rest of them. I'll gladly continue the discussion about Morphling with someone who has got something remotely interesting to say, but that stopped when when the discussion was wrapped up with Lysah and Longview.

I rather lose an argument to someone like Lysah who can - when they stop assuming their skill alone makes an argument - make up good discussion than win an argument against someone like you whose best contributions are gems like "I don't want to bring proof because you would dispute it." Yes, that was me paraphrasing, something I could do without caps and hyperbole. Pizzashark at least knows when it's time to quit, but if it makes you feel better, you can consider yourself the big winner as I did indeed give up. And it is my pride is that keeps me from engaging further in the special olympics of internet arguing against the likes of you.

I do have a bad habit of getting into these arguments, maybe because I approach them as a challenge, but unfortunately quite often people won't give up and while these things drag on I get that mounting feeling of making myself look like an idiot for being seen engaging in any conversation against whoever keeps coming back at me. It's evident you don't have the humility or the intelligence to stop replying, no matter what I write, and at this point I don't want to be known for winning an argument against you any more than I would like to be known for beating 9-year olds in arm wrestling, which is why this conversation was and is discontinued.

I yearn for the day where a genuine discussion which contains no insults or targetting of others in this thread. Everytime I pop in here it seems to be an argument. This is my first post in here because everytime I enter there seems to be a fight between people.

Feel free to voice your opinion but doing so doesn't require you to insult and target eachother.

On topic as much as I love Magnus he does need to be tuned, Battle fury > Crystalus and you can solo a team in the duration of your ulti.

I yearn for the day where a genuine discussion which contains no insults or targetting of others in this thread. Everytime I pop in here it seems to be an argument. This is my first post in here because everytime I enter there seems to be a fight between people.

Feel free to voice your opinion but doing so doesn't require you to insult and target eachother.

On topic as much as I love Magnus he does need to be tuned, Battle fury > Crystalus and you can solo a team in the duration of your ulti.

Yeah I'm quite sorry, like I said, I do have a tendency to pick up arguments. As for Magnus, I don't think it's the damage alone that is an issue but the amount of CC he brings even without items. When they added Skewer and essentially combined his cleave and Empower they probably should have revisited Polarity Shift duration and maybe damage. It could be 2/2.25/2.5 and still be one of the scariest things in the game, and Skewer works as an additional CC anyway. As of now, you don't need Blink to set up ultimates early-game, you don't even need damage items if you can Empower someone else, and with items you can indeed solo teams or lock them down for ages with Refresher. For a hero that absolutely demanded Blink Dagger and wasn't very easy to lane (yet still powerful in the right lineup) he went to being much more useful early-game and even scarier late game.

Skewer is rather painful for victims but can also be troublesome for allies as it may place people out of range, It's an ability with a few uses; Escape, initiate or CC. I don't believe it's truely the issue.

The nerf will most likely have to be in the Ult as 4 seconds is a very long time, and it's not uncommon for a Magnus to 1v5 a team in the duration of the stun.

As much as I love Magnus I have to admit the Ult MUST be nerfed it's the love child of Tidehunter and Dark seer being a stun + vortex.

A lot of the things we talk about end up being opinion. "Is a hero too strong," you can argue that there is a yes/no answer to this, but honestly, this will come down to opinion for most of us because the question is so vague. If you were to say "is Drow too strong in professional games" there would be an answer, but the game is so much more deep than a dozen games every few months.

Speaking of Drow, new most hated hero easily. Ultimate is probably just as godmode as morph strength is. She can go mid with no regen, get killed 4 times in a row, but the second she hits 6 she will VASTLY outfarm everyone on the map and there really isn't a single thing you can do to stop it. All her team has to do is turtle for 15 minutes while she farms up manta buriza by 30 minutes and then proceeds to one shot everyone on your team for a nice, easy "GG."

I'm getting really sick of Drow pickers starting out anywhere from 0-3 to 0-8 and ending up with a beyond godlike spree and winning because her ultimate is quite simply just-too-much-f***ing-damage combined with her aura. Your only real option when they pick drow seems to be to stack the living hell out of CCs and try to kill her before she fires a single shot.

Also, what's up with all the game declines lately? I'm having to sit through a dozen 9/10s to get a game every single time, just like it was months ago before they added decline lockouts.

Skewer is rather painful for victims but can also be troublesome for allies as it may place people out of range, It's an ability with a few uses; Escape, initiate or CC. I don't believe it's truely the issue.

The nerf will most likely have to be in the Ult as 4 seconds is a very long time, and it's not uncommon for a Magnus to 1v5 a team in the duration of the stun.

As much as I love Magnus I have to admit the Ult MUST be nerfed it's the love child of Tidehunter and Dark seer being a stun + vortex.

I wasn't suggesting that Skewer needs a nerf, it's quite fine as it is. It's just that I remembered Magnus as a very powerful but item dependent hero, but Skewer makes the rest of his abilities even better than they were, and like you and I both suggested, revising the rest of his abilities (or just RP) to match the the version of Magnus with Skewer seems appropriate.

I wasn't suggesting that Skewer needs a nerf, it's quite fine as it is. It's just that I remembered Magnus as a very powerful but item dependent hero, but Skewer makes the rest of his abilities even better than they were, and like you and I both suggested, revising the rest of his abilities (or just RP) to match the the version of Magnus with Skewer seems appropriate.

Agreed, reducing the stun time will do the trick and I also believe a increased mana cost should be in place to counter a double polarity.

Magnus is a fantastic pick but I play him as a jungle so a nice farm is guranteed if I don't get invaded and gurantees a win due to Empower + BF + Madness + Crystalis it's rather absurd.

A lot of the things we talk about end up being opinion. "Is a hero too strong," you can argue that there is a yes/no answer to this, but honestly, this will come down to opinion for most of us because the question is so vague. If you were to say "is Drow too strong in professional games" there would be an answer, but the game is so much more deep than a dozen games every few months.

I didn't mean to imply that experience of the speaker doesn't matter nor that I don't take it into consideration - when reading your posts, I tend to assume you know what you're talking about and when reading pizzasharks or someone else's posts I take their inexperience in consideration, at least where it's apparent. I simply don't respond that well when people post their opinions and expect other people to care or take them for granted. Everyone has an opinion, and for someone I don't know at all they'd have to either earn some respect, raise a good point or articulate themselves exceptionally well to make their opinions worth reading.

That being said, you're kind of right about what you said first, maybe because balance in dota is pretty subjective. I imagine that even if God or someone helped Icefrog make dota completely balanced without changing the game too much we'd barely see a drop in the amount of balance QQ.

That being said, you're kind of right about what you said first, maybe because balance in dota is pretty subjective. I imagine that even if God or someone helped Icefrog make dota completely balanced without changing the game too much we'd barely see a drop in the amount of balance QQ.

Well balanced and fun are two different things, too. I lost yet another game to furion backdooring. Is furion OP because he can just take your rax while you team fight his allies? Not really, we didn't have a single hero who could stop him...doesn't make it fun. And people will call "lost the game because furion backdoored" furion being OP as a short way of saying "went 10-0-10 with slithice, still lost because the second I left my base I lost rax, zero fun had."

At the end of the day, if it's a rock/paper/scissors game and you went paper and the enemy team is scissors you will feel like their heroes are overpowered.

Skewer is rather painful for victims but can also be troublesome for allies as it may place people out of range, It's an ability with a few uses; Escape, initiate or CC. I don't believe it's truely the issue.

The nerf will most likely have to be in the Ult as 4 seconds is a very long time, and it's not uncommon for a Magnus to 1v5 a team in the duration of the stun.

As much as I love Magnus I have to admit the Ult MUST be nerfed it's the love child of Tidehunter and Dark seer being a stun + vortex.

The odd thing is that I haven't seen Magnus picked up a lot in recent pro games. I don't think I've been seeing him banned but I'll be honest, I skip the pick/ban phase nine times out of ten because I find it boring as hell. Usually it seems like TA is first pick and Sven and Jakiro show up sometime before the second ban phase.

I think we'll see a LOT of Centaur if he gets into CM without additional changes. Double Edge is just stupidly good for him... it's an enormous amount of burst damage at all stages of the game (it'll drop off in the late game, but someone can buy a Veil or pick a hero like AA to boost its damage back up to relevancy) and since it has a small AOE component with 100% damage spread, it also allows him to farm very efficiently, especially in regards to stacked jungle camps. The self-damage component rapidly drops off as you finish Tranquil Boots + Ring of Health/Hood of Defiance. His stomp has always been good, his passive becomes pretty good as he gains more Strength, and while I wouldn't say his ulti is OP anymore, it's very strong, especially at level 16 when it's a 60 sec cooldown.

I'll agree that Magnus landing a Reverse Polarity on multiple heroes is pretty much a won fight. Puts you into perfect position to get cleaved and stuns you for five years... and ignores BKB. Heh. I'd love to see a team with Magnus and PA. PA sounds like she could be really silly with Empower, Battle Fury, and whatever else she wants, cleaving close to 100% of 1.5k crits...

---------- Post added 2012-11-27 at 11:15 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Lysah

Well balanced and fun are two different things, too. I lost yet another game to furion backdooring. Is furion OP because he can just take your rax while you team fight his allies? Not really, we didn't have a single hero who could stop him...doesn't make it fun. And people will call "lost the game because furion backdoored" furion being OP as a short way of saying "went 10-0-10 with slithice, still lost because the second I left my base I lost rax, zero fun had."

At the end of the day, if it's a rock/paper/scissors game and you went paper and the enemy team is scissors you will feel like their heroes are overpowered.

I'd also note that there are many OP abilities, but it's hard to determine if that makes the hero as a whole OP or not, especially since the areas you can pull relevant information from (professional games and "high MMR" games, which are presumably what the game's balanced around) tend to be trend-based regardless of the current state of a given hero in terms of "OP" or "not OP."

I also do landscaping on weekends with some mexican kid that I "hired". He's real good because he's 100% obedient to me and does everything I say while never complaining. He knows that I am the man in the relationship and is completely submissive towards me as he should be.

Remember when we talked about how OP is subjective and then this guy who is obsessed with seeing OP everywhere jumped here to tell what's OP this week?

I'd also note that what's in your head still isn't reality. I already pointed it out when you complained about Smoke Bomb n pages back, but would you mind explaining how a hero that is fine can have an ability that is OP? You don't get those abilities on any other heroes, it makes no sense to say something like "Riki is fine but Smoke Bomb is OP." Either the hero is OP, maybe because said skill is OP, or they're both fine. Smoke Bomb might be OP on Krobelus, Storm Bolt might be OP on Rubick (as a base skill, considering he is one of those heroes with a separate nuke and separate CC), but unfortunately only Riki and Sven have access to them. With the exception of Spell Steal, of course.

Besides, how do you make Double Edge extremely great farming ability if you first have to invest in a ton of HP regen to keep using it? Does that differ much from how some other heroes could invest in mana regen or BF to farm? And how is "someone can buy a veil to boost it" not something that applies to any hero with nukes?

And this would be the third time you launch into an explanation about how super Double Edge is? What, did you think someone didn't get your opinion yet?

The odd thing is that I haven't seen Magnus picked up a lot in recent pro games. I don't think I've been seeing him banned but I'll be honest, I skip the pick/ban phase nine times out of ten because I find it boring as hell. Usually it seems like TA is first pick and Sven and Jakiro show up sometime before the second ban phase.

He was either picked or banned in EVERY game at Dreamhack. He was picked 13 times and won 11 of those games.

Besides, how do you make Double Edge extremely great farming ability if you first have to invest in a ton of HP regen to keep using it? Does that differ much from how some other heroes could invest in mana regen or BF to farm? And how is "someone can buy a veil to boost it" not something that applies to any hero with nukes?

Because in most cases you'd get those regen items anyway. Centy needs to be tanky and just like with Pudge having a magical self-damage skill, Hood (and potentially finishing into Pipe) is an easy choice. Tranquil Boots can be disassembled later and are becoming popular on a lot of heroes to make sure you can stay in lane regardless of harassment.

I wasn't implying that Veil can't be combined with other nukes, but that Double Edge hits considerably harder than most nukes (400 base damage versus around 300-325 for most other nukes), has a very short cooldown, and mostly has no resource cost past a certain point.

Originally Posted by Lillpapps

He was either picked or banned in EVERY game at Dreamhack. He was picked 13 times and won 11 of those games.

Haven't gotten around to watching Dreamhack. That'd probably be why I haven't seen him much, then :P

I also do landscaping on weekends with some mexican kid that I "hired". He's real good because he's 100% obedient to me and does everything I say while never complaining. He knows that I am the man in the relationship and is completely submissive towards me as he should be.